Guilty verdict 'a relief' for Weymouth mom of slain son

On what would have been Jeffrey Phillips’ 35th birthday, a jury convicted Lucas E. Walters of first degree murder in Phillips’ 2009 death in Braintree. “He sent down the verdict today to make us happy on his birthday,” Phillips’ mother, Jane Phillips of Weymouth, said shortly after the verdict was read.

By Fred Hanson

Wicked Local

By Fred Hanson

Posted Jun. 20, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Jun 20, 2013 at 8:08 PM

By Fred Hanson

Posted Jun. 20, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Jun 20, 2013 at 8:08 PM

DEDHAM

» Social News

On what would have been Jeffrey Phillips’ 35th birthday, a jury convicted Lucas E. Walters of first degree murder in Phillips’ 2009 death.

The verdict was returned late Wednesday afternoon after nearly two full days of deliberations.

“He sent down the verdict today to make us happy on his birthday,” Phillips’ mother, Jane Phillips of Weymouth, said on the steps of Norfolk Superior Court shortly after the verdict was read.

Judge Kenneth Fishman, who presided over the three-week trial, will impose the mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole at a hearing this morning.

Walters, 32, was accused of hitting Phillips at least 14 times with an ax outside the house on Middle Street in Braintree where they both lived on July 24, 2009.

Walters had asked Phillips to lend him some money and Phillips refused, since Walters already owed him money. The argument that followed the refusal turned violent.

Walters hid Phillips’ body in a shed on the property for two days before taking it to Suffield, Conn., and dumping it in the woods.

Six days later, Walters went to the Braintree police station and confessed to the murder, shortly after Phillips’ friends and family launched a search for him.

More than a dozen of Phillips’ relatives, friends and co-workers at Vater Percussion in Holbrook applauded and shouted “thank you” to the jurors as they crossed High Street after leaving the courthouse.

Jane Phillips attended the trial, carrying a laminated picture of her son and one of his sweatshirts.

She said she was glad the trial was over. She said the verdict was “a relief and a weight off my shoulders.”

Christine White of Jamaica Plain, a friend of Phillips’, was wearing a black T-shirt with the words “In Memory of Jeffrey Phillips.”

“It’s a relief he’s going away forever,” White said of Walters. “But we still don’t have Jeffrey back.”

Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey, whose office prosecuted the case, commended the detectives who gave prosecutors Brian Wilson and Pamela Alford “the tools they needed to get a successful case together.”

He also thanked the Phillips family for their patience “in waiting for us to put this case to trial.” Victim advocate Beth Avola worked with the family.

“It is our hope that today’s verdict provides Jeffrey’s family whatever modicum of solace the criminal justice system can provide.”

Morrissey also thanked the jurors for “their work, their diligence and their just conclusion.”

William Sullivan, Walters’ lawyer, said both he and his client were disappointed with the verdict. In the trial, Sullivan did not deny Walters killed Phillips, but said the facts pointed to a conviction on a lesser charge of manslaughter.

Page 2 of 2 - “I was hopeful some of the facts would act as mitigating factors, such as (Walters’) drug use and the fact he turned himself in when he wasn’t even a suspect,” Sullivan said.

An appeal is automatic in first degree murder cases, and Sullivan believes there are “significant and relevant issues that will point to a retrial.”

The jury also convicted Walters of breaking and entering in the daytime and larceny from a building.

Morrissey noted it is the second murder conviction in as many days for his office. Michael W. Blanchard was convicted of second degree murder Tuesday for shooting Stephen Erving as he slept in his Stoughton home on March 16, 2010.